Is it racist for New York City to single out one racial slur and turn a blind eye to all the others? Is this constitutional? Is this the first steps of eroding free speech in America? Well regardless of what critics have said, New York City has now officially banned the use of the word ‘nigger’ in a “symbolic gesture.” Newsday.com has published some notable quotes from people in regard to this story. One of these quotes is:

“People are using it out of context. People are also denigrating themselves by using the word and disrespecting their history, disrespecting the history of a people and a country and also putting themselves in a negative light that we need to correct.” _ Councilman Leroy Comrie, sponsor of the bill.

The featured article follows below:

New York City symbolically banned use of the word nigger today, the latest step in a campaign that hopes to expunge the most vile of racial slurs from hip hop music and television.

The City Council unanimously declared a moratorium that carries no penalty but aims to stop youth from casually using the word, considered by most Americans to be the most offensive in the English language.

The New York City measure follows similar resolutions this month by the New York state assembly and state senate, and supporters of the ban are taking their campaign to The Recording Academy, asking it not to nominate musicians for Grammy awards if they use the word in their lyrics.

Many rap artists and young New Yorkers toss the word around as a term of endearment or as a substitute for black, angering some black leaders who consider those who use it as ignorant of the word’s hate-filled history in slavery and segregation.

“This could be the beginning of a movement,” councilman Albert Vann said.

Councilman Leroy Comrie, a sponsor of the moratorium, said the campaign against the word has gained strength since comedian Michael Richards spewed it in a racially charged tirade in Los Angeles.

With a debate swirling nationwide over the n-word, a historically black college in Alabama has set aside four days to discuss the racial slur.Participants at the conference, which began Thursday and ends Sunday, discussed topics ranging from the origins of the epithet to whether juggling a few letters makes it socially acceptable at the “N” Surrection Conference at Stillman College.

Organizers said the goal of the event is to challenge the use of the n-word “through the use of intelligent dialogue and a thorough examination of black history.”

Debate over the use of the word has escalated in recent months, with comedian Michael Richards’ racial rant prompting black leaders such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson and California Congresswoman Maxine Waters to urge the public and the entertainment industry to stop using it.

Clarence Sutton Sr., president of the Tuscaloosa chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said he’s taken deep offense to the slur since a 1960 incident when a knife-wielding white youth slapped him and said “Nigger, you wanna fight?”

“From that time on in my life, the word nigger was personal. I associated it with the hate and the very deep disdain that this gentleman had perpetrated on me at the time,” he said.

These days, Sutton said, it’s mostly other blacks he finds using the word.

“I’m fighting now because we have lost a generation of young people who don’t know the history associated with that word,” Sutton said.